On March 6, the day after a defeat against the Hornets, the Spurs were in the hard. Four straight losses, a significant gap with tenth place (three wins) and the San Antonio franchise was in 12th place in the Western Conference.
There were then five weeks of the regular season left, enough to come back, but the Texans could have done like the Blazers, who were ahead of them in the standings at this time, and let go completely. The proof: in full “tanking”, Portland lost 21 of its 23 matches after the All-Star Game…
“Honestly, I don’t know how I would have said to my team: ‘Okay, we don’t fight like we should anymore'”explique Gregg Popovich au San Antonio Express News. “How do you get that across, with a wink and a nod?” I think we’re doing the players a disservice if they can’t give it their all. I understand that we can act like this, but I can’t. I’m not like that. »
“Tanking”, that is to say the fact of accumulating defeats (without saying it, of course…) to be better placed in the Draft, was therefore not an option for the five-time NBA champion coach.
The winningest coach in league history since this season also thought of his players. And as his troops finally snatched the “play-in”, which they will play against the Pelicans, he was right to insist.
“I think young players gain something morally and philosophically, that to keep fighting is the right thing to do,” continues the Tokyo Olympic champion. “The lessons to be learned from this are very important for their careers. We hope that, in the long term, they will retain this to evolve to an even higher level. »
| Tirs | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Tirs | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Until | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Fte | Pts |
| Dejounte Murray | 67 | 34.8 | 46.3 | 33.0 | 78.8 | 1.2 | 7.2 | 8.4 | 9.3 | 2.7 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 21.2 |
| Keldon Johnson | 74 | 31.9 | 46.7 | 40.2 | 74.9 | 1.1 | 5.0 | 6.1 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 16.9 |
| Derrick White | 49 | 30.3 | 42.6 | 31.4 | 86.9 | 0.5 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 5.6 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 2.4 | 14.4 |
| Jakob Poeltl | 67 | 29.0 | 62.0 | 100.0 | 49.5 | 3.9 | 5.5 | 9.3 | 2.8 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 1.7 | 3.1 | 13.5 |
| Devin Vassell | 70 | 27.2 | 42.8 | 36.0 | 83.2 | 0.6 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 12.2 |
| Lonnie Walker | 70 | 23.0 | 40.7 | 31.4 | 78.4 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 2.6 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 12.1 |
| Doug Mcdermott | 51 | 24.0 | 46.2 | 42.2 | 78.4 | 0.4 | 1.9 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 11.3 |
| Josh Richardson | 20 | 24.2 | 42.5 | 43.4 | 94.3 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 2.9 | 2.4 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 11.1 |
| Bryn Forbes | 40 | 16.9 | 43.2 | 41.7 | 89.8 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 9.1 |
| Zach Collins | 27 | 18.0 | 48.0 | 34.1 | 79.4 | 1.7 | 3.9 | 5.6 | 2.1 | 1.6 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 7.8 |
| Thaddeus Young | 26 | 14.3 | 57.8 | 0.0 | 45.5 | 1.5 | 2.0 | 3.6 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 6.1 |
| Three Jones | 68 | 16.6 | 48.8 | 17.0 | 78.0 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 5.9 |
| Joshua Primo | 49 | 19.3 | 36.9 | 30.7 | 74.6 | 0.7 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.6 | 5.8 |
| Keita Bates-diop | 58 | 16.3 | 51.8 | 30.9 | 74.6 | 1.0 | 2.9 | 3.9 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 5.6 |
| Jock Landale | 53 | 11.0 | 49.3 | 32.6 | 82.9 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 2.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 5.0 |
| Drew Eubanks | 49 | 12.1 | 52.8 | 12.5 | 74.7 | 1.3 | 2.7 | 4.0 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 4.7 |
| Devontae Cacok | 14 | 8.3 | 67.7 | 0.0 | 57.1 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 2.9 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 3.3 |
| Tomas Satoransky | 1 | 9.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 |
| Romeo Langford | 4 | 10.6 | 57.1 | 0.0 | 37.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 2.8 |
| Joe Wieskamp | 29 | 6.8 | 35.7 | 32.6 | 53.8 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 2.1 |
| Tyler Johnson | 3 | 17.7 | 20.0 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
| Juancho Hernangomez | 5 | 10.1 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 0.8 | 2.2 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.4 |
| Jaylen Morris | 3 | 5.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
| Anthony Lamb | 2 | 3.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
